Kyrgyzstan restores Bolshevik holiday

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan --Going against the flow of other ex-Soviet states, Kyrgyzstan's parliament has voted to reinstate the annual anniversary of Russia's 1917 Bolshevik revolution as a public holiday.

A majority of the 60 deputies voted for the bill, Reuters news agency reported, saying their mountainous state had to be grateful to the Bolsheviks for ending the "genocide of the Kyrgyz nation" unleashed by tsarist Russia after a popular uprising in 1916.

A central Asian country of incredible natural beauty and proud nomadic traditions, Kyrgyzstan was annexed by Russia in 1864.

The republic dropped the biggest Communist-era celebration, marked on November 7, from its calendar in 1991 after gaining independence from Moscow.